How Instagram Tools Boost Engagement

Are you posting regularly to Instagram but still not receiving the engagement you feel your posts deserve? 

Luckily, there are lots of helpful tools on Instagram that you may not have previously used which can boost your engagement and lead to social media success.

Of course, the key to any successful brand/business is understanding your audience. This is super important before starting any sort of social media strategy as it can guide you through knowing what to post, how to caption and what tools are going to best enhance your engagement. Here are some handy tips for brands wanting easy ways to widen their audience and encourage interactivity:  

Use your stories

According to Instagram, over 500 million Instagram accounts use stories every day. With 58% of people saying they have become more interested in a brand/product after seeing it on an Instagram story, there has never been a better time to utilise stories for your business.

One super easy tip for making your stories more discoverable among new audiences is to add hashtags. To access the hashtag feature, tap the smiley face sticker in the top right screen of your story and press the hashtag sticker. As you start typing, Instagram will suggest some of the most popular hashtags.Try to use popular tags related to your company or product.

Polls are also a great way to encourage interaction from your audience,and they can be about anything and everything! When using the poll feature, try and post about 10 stories all with different questions. ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ answers or ‘would you rather’ type questions are the best for this format. Users will be encouraged to click through and give their opinion. 

Create ‘saveable’ content

Instagram likes, comments, shares and saves are more important than ever for increasing engagement. 

When trying to create ‘saveable’ posts, think about creating content that focuses on ideas other than your product or brand. Think about the sort of post that your audience would want to save to have easy access to at a future date. 

Therefore, think about posts that give your audience tips, interesting information,blog-type content, or pop culture related posts.

Use carousel posts

Instagram’s carousel feature allows you to post up to 10 photos or videos in one post. As researched by Social Insider, carousel posts bring an engagement rate of 1.92%, compared to 1.74% for single image posts. 

Brands should aim to mix up their posts by incorporating carousels and including videos within their content, as carousels that mix images with videos bring in engagement rates of 2.33% on average. 

Brands should use this style of post to promote new products, share event coverage or enhance your brand’s personality through ‘meet the team’ style posts. 

By swiping through the posts, your audience is telling the Instagram algorithm that they are interested in seeing more of your content. This will lead to the algorithm favouring your posts and pushing them to the top of your audience’s feed. This, in turn, boots coverage and interactivity for your posts.

If you want to know more about how you can improve your social media strategy, get in touch.

© MOTIVE